Page 79 of His Elder

I collapsed on top of him, my lungs burning, my heart trying to beat its way out of my chest. We lay there in the tangle of sweat-damp sheets, gasping for air, the smell of sex and musk heavy in the room.

For a long time, the only sound was our ragged breathing and the rain drumming against the window. It felt like we had just exorcised the last ghosts of that apartment in Barcelona, replacing the memory of fear with this—this absolute, undeniable ownership of each other.

Slowly, the world came back into focus. The desk. The easel. The life we’d built.

Sam shifted beneath me. I rolled off, pulling him into my side. He was limp, boneless, his skin slick with sweat. He buried his face in my neck, his breath hot and wet against my skin.

"Okay?" I managed to wheeze.

I felt him smile against my throat. "Better than okay."

He propped himself up on one elbow, looking down at me. His hair was a disaster, his lips were swollen, and there was a new bruise forming on his collarbone where I’d been alittle too enthusiastic. He looked wrecked. He looked magnificent.

"We're going to have to wash these sheets," he said, his voice raspy.

"We'll buy new ones."

He laughed, a real, bright sound that seemed to clear the last of the shadows from the corners of the room. He leaned down and kissed me, soft and sweet, a stark contrast to the violence of a moment ago.

"I love you," he whispered.

"I love you too."

He snuggled closer, his head finding the curve of my shoulder, his arm draped across my chest. He was home. We both were. We were free, no longer shackled by the weight of shame or the fear of damnation. The laughter, the tears, the stolen moments of joy and doubt had sculpted a love that was fierce and unyielding. In the quiet of our small, cluttered bedroom, where every mark and colour on the walls echoed our journey, we lay surrounded by the dreams we dared to embrace. Together, we had fought our way through the darkness and emerged into the light, and as we finally surrendered to the sweet embrace of sleep, I knew that this was only the beginning of everything we could be.